Quotessence
Home / Topics / Prison Quotes

Prison Quotes

Browse 2429 quotes about Prison.

Related topics

PeopleIfsMenYearsThinkingWorldCrimeKnowsPrisonerWantWayJailWallLongMindDoeStatesHas BeensHumansWellsLawSchoolShouldSoulCountryGovernmentPunishmentGivingKindCriminalsLooksMadeNeedsCellsFirstsMayHomeFeelsLittlesWarHouseMeanBarsBelieveMightChildrenDrugSaidBreakBlackDoorsPersonsWritingI CanTryingWould BeHeartPastPoliceTwoBodyEndsInmatesLibertyStillsPoliticalRunningSelfWholeRealReasonCommunityDifferentFoundHandsRoomsSentencesTodayUsedBookDonePoorPrison WallsSufferingAmericaJusticeSecurityThreeChainsIdeasJobsPresidentProblemShowsSometimesTermYoungEyeHardHelpingmore

Prison Quotes

“New prisoners are largely of two kinds -- there are those who for shame, fear or shock wait in fascinated horror to be initiated into the lore of prison life, and there are those who trade on their wretched novelty in order to endear themselves to the community. Leamas did neither of these things. He seemed pleased to despise them all, and they hated him because, like the world outside, he did not need them.”

SolitudePrisonSpy
Book:The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Create image

“Я всей душой привязана ко многим людям — и всё же именно тюрьма оказалась для меня лучшей школой жизни. Болезненной, но важной. Здесь я проникла во все тонкости человеческой души; здесь я узнала уродство и красоту, низость и благородство. Здесь же я научилась видеть жизнь своими глазами, а не глазами Саши, Моста или Эда. Тюрьма стала суровым испытанием на прочность для моих идеалов. Она помогла мне осознать собственную силу — силу бороться в одиночестве, жить своей жизнью и отстаивать свои ценности. Пойти против всего мира, если понадобится! Штат Нью-Йорк сослужил мне отличную службу, отправив меня в тюрьму Блэквелл-Айленд!”

SolitudePrison
Author:Emma Goldmann
Create image

“THE CURSE May they never Return home at night... May you have no part of eventide, May you have no room of your own, Nor road, nor return. May your days be all exactly the same, Five Fridays in a row, Always an unlucky Tuesday, No Sunday, May you have no more little worries, Tears or inspiration, For you yourself are the greatest worry on earth: Prisoner!”

PrisonCursePrisonerMalediction
Book:The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry
Create image

“Là où l’ancienne éducation initiait, la nouvelle ″conditionne″. Avec l’ancienne, on traitait les élèves comme les oiseaux traitent leurs petits pour leur apprendre à voler ; dans la nouvelle, on les traite plutôt comme un éleveur traite ses jeunes volailles, pour des raisons dont elles ignorent tout. En un mot, l’ancienne éducation était une sorte de propagation –des hommes transmettant la force de leur humanité aux hommes-, la nouvelle n’est que propagande.”

ViolencePrisonParentsLibertéCommunismeEnfantsSocialismeLibertarienéColeEnseignementDictatureEtatCollectivismeEndoctrinementEtatismeLibéralPropagandeEnseignantMaitresseséDucation Nationale
Author:C.S. Lewis
Create image

“Prison is not a good idea because it puts two people in prison: the prisoner and the guard. And the rest of us become inheritors of The Fugitive Slave Law, requiring us to turn in people who seek their freedom through the Underground Railroad or the overland express, or face the consequences of the full force of the law for not doing so. Newspapers, radio, television, and movies have made us afraid of our fellow citizens who are accused of being heretics, witches, christians, Jews, Muslims, drug lords, drug users, prostitutes, sodomites, anything somehow different from what we think we are or should be but not afraid of slum lords, union busters, corrupt and graft-taking politicians, insider traders, employers paying less than minimum wage, college presidents shutting down debate.”

PoetryFearPoemPrisonDifference
Book:Acolytes
Create image

“How could I admit that the All-American Girl's force field of stoicism and self-reliance and do-unto-others-and-keep-smiling wasn't working, wasn't keeping pain and shame and powerlessness away? From a young age I had learned to get over - to cover my tracks emotionally, to hide or ignore my problems in the belief that they were mine alone to solve. So when exhilarating transgressions required getting over on authority figures, I knew how to do it. I was a great bluffer. And when common, everyday survival in prison required getting over, I could do that too. This is what was approvingly described by my fellow prisoners as 'street-smarts,' as in 'You wouldn't think it to look at her, but Piper's got street-smarts.”

AuthoritySurvivalEmotionsPrisonSelf RelianceStoicismStreet Smart
Book:Orange Is the New Black
Create image

“The other faction, far less visible or influential, arose in the marginalized communities, among women - Black, brown, queer, trans, poor, disabled - whom the state has never protected. These abolition feminists have learned from experience that prisons do not end violence, but rather perpetrate and perpetuate it, while destroying individual lives, families, and communities. Like a lot of their compatriots in the carceral feminist movement, many are themselves survivors of sexual harm. But, unlike the other contingent, their politics join the struggle against sexual and gender violence with that against the "white supremacist prison nation," to use the term coined by abolitionist scholar Beth E. Richie.”

FeminismPrisonHarmAbolitionGender Violence
Book:The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Harm, Ending State Violence
Create image

“Golden bars make no less a prison than a coffin on a hill. And in caged reformation, one wanders aimless still. The rafters now a recollection of sacred suppression. How the morning dawn strikes mourning confession. Now Death yields a harvest of the living masses. We walk toward its path no earthly power surpasses.”

DeathPrisonMourning
Book:An owl on the moon: A journal from the edge of darkness
Create image

“Do you know a Psychopath? You do not know me; but after reading my memoir you will know me a little better and you will have had the experience of safely getting into the mind and life of a young psychopath in training. Critics have written: It is a powerful and unusual memoir; brutal and raw. A Psychopath In Training: In 1997 psychiatrist’s contracted by the Correctional Service and the National Parole Board wrote in their final report, before I was released back into the community, they had diagnosed me to be a psychopath. A Psychopath: How does one become a Psychopath? After of the death of my young mother, when I was fourteen, I became a ward of the state and forced into the care and custody of the Catholic Christian Brothers at St. John’s Catholic Training School for Boys until after I turned sixteen. Since then I have been incarcerated over seventeen years in various prisons, institutions and juvenile detention centres. I have been interviewed and treated by so many prison psychiatrists and psychologists I should be called the professional. In my youth I have experienced almost every kind of sleaze, sex and violence humans can inflict on each other. I had to learn the hard way on how to identify and deal with the people who were the dangerous psychopath’s in my life and the proof I succeeded is; I am still alive. My book cover depicts what is coming out of the government foster homes and prisons today: Our communities and our police forces are not at all prepared for the dangerous psychopaths being churned out. Are you ready? You and the educators alike can learn from my memoir.”

SexHistoryCrimePrison
Author:Michael A. Hodge
Create image

“Proshka was a man of self-esteem. He considered himself a cut above the rest, and had a degree of personal pride. His spell in prison was a humiliating experience for him. No longer could he strut with pride before his fellows, and his spirits sank at once. Proshka went home from prison embittered not so much against Pyotr Nikolayevich as against the whole world. Everyone said the same thing: after he came out of prison, Proshka went to pieces. He grew too lazy to work, took to drink, and was soon caught stealing clothes from the trademan's wife. Once again he ended up in prison.”

FailurePrideDepressionShamePrisonResilienceReputationIncarcerationRecidivism
Book:The Forged Coupon
Create image

“I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there, in prison, that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My home made education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London asking questions. One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.” You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.”

HopeReadingRaceEducationBooksRacismPrisonPrison Industrial Complex
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Create image

“The only furniture in the dank space was a flimsy cot. Water dripped steadily in one corner. A hole in the floor appeared to serve as a latrine. What most caught Kendra's eye were the messages scratched on the wall. She roamed the cell, reading the crudely inscribed phrases. "Seth rules! Welcome to Seth's House. Seth rocks! Seth was here. Now it's your turn. Seth Sorenson forever. Enjoy the food! If you're reading this, you can read. All roads lead to Seth. Is it still dripping? Seth haunts these halls. You're in a Turkish prison! Seth is the man! Use the meal mats as toilet paper." And so forth. Cold, hopeless, and alone, Kendra found herself giggling at the messages her brother had scrawled. He must have been so bored!”

FunnyMessagesPrisonHopelessCheer UpBrother And SisterDungeonKendra SorensonSeth Sorenson
Book:Keys to the Demon Prison
Create image

“The relevant question is not whether back then a few extraordinary individuals could overcome a system strongly weighted against them or whether today an admittedly far greater number requiring far less talent can succeed. The real question is whether it's harder for the people in this audience to succeed be they extraordinary, average, or below average. If it is, and I think it obvious that it is, then that's untenable in a country that purports to provide equal opportunity for all. Now of course you'll dispute my claim that it is more difficult to succeed for them. You say the battle's over. I say not only is it not over but you yourself are stationed on the frontline of the battle and have been all these years. This room and the criminal justice system as a whole is the frontline. This is where modern-day segregation lives on.”

LawRacismPrisonSegregationCriminal JusticeCourtsColorblind RacismAcheivment
Book:A Naked Singularity
Create image

“Watu wanaohatarisha maisha yao kwa kudharau sheria wakati mwingine hawatakiwi kudharauliwa. Ni sawa na mtu aliyepoteza kila kitu katika maisha yake. Wana uwezo wa kufanya chochote. Serikali ya Meksiko ilipokataa kukidhi matakwa ya El Tigre ya kubadili katiba ya nchi – kuondoa kipengele cha mkataba wa kubadilishana watuhumiwa na washtakiwa – ili akikamatwa asipelekwe Marekani ambako atafungwa na kufia gerezani, El Tigre aliilaani Serikali ya Meksiko. Kujibu mapigo, ya laana ya maluuni, Serikali ya Meksiko ikawakabidhi makamanda 7 wa Kolonia Santita kwa mamlaka za Marekani, na kuongeza juhudi za kumsaka El Tigre mpaka nje ya Amerika ya Kusini na Kaskazini. El Tigre, kuikomoa serikali na kuwalipia kisasi makamanda wote waliouwawa na kufungwa na shirikisho, akamuua Mwanasheria Mkuu wa Serikali (PGR) na maafisa 7 wa Jeshi la Polisi la Nchi (PJF) kulinganisha idadi ya makamanda wake waliopelekwa Marekani – halafu 'akapotea', kabisa; baada ya kutangaza vita na Serikali ya Meksiko!”

PeopleLifeWarLawAbilityPrisonSuspectsOfficersAccusedVitaCommandersNorth AmericaSouth AmericaFederationMaishaPolice ForceWatuKolonia SantitaUwezoAuthoritiesAmerikaSheriaMamlakaAttorney GeneralEl TigreMarekaniAmerika Ya KusiniMakamandaMwanasheria Mkuu Wa SerikaliMaafisaPgrPjfAmerika Ya KaskaziniCountry S ConstitutionCurse Of The CursedGerezaJeshi La PolisiKatiba Ya NchiLaana Ya MaluuniMexican GovernmentSerikali Ya MeksikoShirikishoWashtakiwaWatuhumiwa
Book:Kolonia Santita
Create image

“Their quarry had been cornered in his defenses and their bloodlust was such that they were likely to pay top Julep to watch him escape, so that he might be brutalized and killed before their very eyes, as this was much more gratifying to them than simply watching justice be enacted. They, too, understood that societal constructs for justice were moderate gratification, at best, as they were empty and subject to contradictions and compromises steeped in moral relativism and an unconditional dependence upon overblown semantics that made the law a mockery of itself. As for the ideologies that these hollow systems of jurisprudence sought to define and uphold: these could easily be subjugated through a meticulous analysis of the trivial components of one statute or another. The rule of law had failed them. What the people wanted, in its stead, was rather simple: moral absolutes. Good versus evil. And evil was not to be simply prevailed over. Evil was to be dominated and effectively eliminated, because as long as it was able to while away the time somewhere—in some sweaty prison cell, far away, staring out the barred window with a wry smile, as it plotted its next offensive on the Common Good, a sense of wholeness could not be achieved.”

JusticePrisonGood And EvilBrutalityCommon GoodNatural LawContradictionsMoral RelativismQuarryJurisprudenceBloodlustCompromisesDualitiesHollow Systems Of JurisprudenceMoral AbsolutesOverblown SemanticsSocietal Contructs For JusticeSubjugation Of Law
Book:Don't Forget to Breathe
Create image

“To escape the Prison, I made myself mortal. Immortal as you are, but... mortal compared to- to what I was. And what I was... I did not feel the way you do. The way I do now. Some things- loyalty and wrath and curiosity- but not the full spectrum.' Again, that faraway look. 'I was perfect, according to some. I did not regret, did not mourn- and pain... I did not experience it. And yet... yet I wound up here, because I was not quite like the others. Even as- as what I was, I was different. Too curious. Too questioning. The day the rip appeared in the sky... it was curiosity that drove me. My brothers and sisters fled. Upon the orders of our ruler, we had just laid waste to twin cities, smote them wholly into rubble on the plain, and yet they fled from that rip in the world. But I wanted to look. I wanted. I was not built or bred to feel such selfish things as want. I'd seen what happened to those of my kind who strayed, who learned to place their needs first. Who developed... feeling. But I went through the tear in the sky. And here I am.' 'And you gave all that up to get out of the Prison?' Mor asked softly. 'I yielded my grace- my perfect immortality. I knew that once I did... I would feel pain. And regret. I would want, and I would burn with it. I would... fall. But I was- the time locked away down there... I didn't care. I had not felt the wind on my face, had not smelled the rain... I did not even remember what they felt like. I did not remember sunlight.' It was to Azriel that her attention drifted- the shadowsinger's darkness pulled away to reveal eyes full of understanding. Locked away. 'So I bound myself into this body. I shoved my burning grace deep into me. I gave up everything I was. The cell door just... unlocked. And so I walked out.”

FeelingsPrisonSarah J MaasImmortalityGave UpFeelA Court Of Wings And RuinAzrielMorAmren
Book:A Court of Wings and Ruin
Create image

“They did not use the sonic stunners but the foray gun, the ancient weapon that fires a set of metal fragments in a burst. They shot to kill him. He was dying when I got to him, sprawled and twisted away from his skis that stuck up out of the snow, his chest half shot away. I took his head in my arms and spoke to him, but he never answered me; only in a way he answered my love for him, crying out through the silent wreck and tumult of his mind as consciousness lapsed, in the unspoken tongue, once, clearly, 'Arek!' Then no more. I held him, crouching there in the snow, while he died. They let me do that. Then they made me get up, and took me off one way and him another, I going to prison and he into the dark.”

LoveDeathPrisonFugitive
Book:The Left Hand of Darkness
Create image

“Prisons by Stewart Stafford There are prisons of bars and jailers, There are dungeons of the mind, And of family blackmailers. Some sit manacled in a marriage cell, Thunderous isolation next door, All aflame in loveless hell. Misery, with no parole in poverty's trap, While in privileged ivory towers nearby, Elite confinement in luxury's lap. Inmates break free to a new golden age, Other jailbirds await merciful luck, Destined never to escape the cage. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”

PrisonIsolationJailPrisonerTrapsConfinementPrisonersBad MarriagePoverty TrapLap Of Luxury
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“Mr Judge, Jury & Executioner of Micah Xavier Johnson‬ needs to go to jail as soon as possible – he is a danger to civilized society.”

SocietyDangerousDangerPrisonUsaJailExecutionPolice BrutalityPolicemenJuryPolice OfficerJudgePolice CorruptionPolice StateCivilized SocietyJudgementalPolicemanCivilized BehaviorDangerous WorldPolice ServiceJudgement QuotesDangerous PeopleCivilized QuotesDangerous MindsExecution QuotesExecutionerExecution QuoteJury TrialsCivilized GovernanceCivilized Quote
Author:Steven Magee
Create image

“Life is so fragile and unpredictable, especially when you are in a gang or in a life of crime. It’s like playing poker; you think to yourself that you have a good hand. However, it is only when you reveal your hand do you sometimes discover to your horror that someone else’s hand is better.”

HorrorPrisonCriminalsFragileUnpredictableConsequencesThug LifePokerGang MembersStreet LifeCourt Of LawPrison SentencePoker PlayersA Life Of CrimePrison InmatesStreet Killings
Book:The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father
Create image

“His love had this pull like a quicksand and she was soon all buried deep in it except for her eyes. She could no longer move, breath or make a sound of a cry or laughter. But she could still see. From a distance she could still see her love for him. It looked like a shore with mountains on one side, infinity blue above and waves of all sizes broke onto that shore. Waves he could ride his whole life.”

FreedomDepressionPrisonUnconditional LoveEmotional DistanceSuffocate
Author:Nahiar Ozar
Create image

“He was about to cross a point of no return. The place separating him from the imaginary line in the sand. The one society demanded no one cross. He crossed the point on many occasions. This would be different. This could land him in prison or the electric chair. The prospect filled him with sexual energy he normally lacked”

SocietyCrimeMurderPrisonMurder MysterySerial KillerPerversionSociety DenialSexual ViolencePsychopathsPsychopathyPervert
Book:Justice of the Fox
Create image

“Power does not pardon, power punishes.”

InspirationalWritingPhilosophyWisdomMotivationalLawQuotesPowerfulKnowledgePowerCrimeSpeechForgivenessCourtPrisonPunishmentMovieStoryJailRhetoricCreative WritingSlogansPardonAmit KalantriAmit Kalantri QuotesPublic SpeakingForgiveProverbsSocial NetworkingBloggingCharactersAmit Kalantri WriterAdageNovel WritingBook WritingJudiciaryEssayScriptAdvertisementBlogMovie DialogueScript WritingCatchphrasesAlliterationsTag LinesScriptwritingCatch LinesSpeechwritingPunchlinePunishSix Word StoryHangingLeniency6 Word Stories
Book:Wealth of Words
Create image